March 9, 1997: Notorious B.I.G. Killed Video - ABC News ABC News East Coast rapper Biggie Smalls is gunned down in a drive-by shooting in L.A. 3:00 | 09/08/14 Coming up in the next {{countdown}} {{countdownlbl}} Coming up next: More information on this video Enhanced full screen Transcript for 3/9/97: Notorious B.I.G. Killed This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. Now Playing: 9/14/82: Grace Kelly Dies Now Playing: 9/13/93: PLO-Israeli Peace Agreement Now Playing: 9/15/01: Pres.

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Killed","duration":"3:00","description":"East Coast rapper Biggie Smalls is gunned down in a drive-by shooting in L.A.","url":"/Archives/video/march-1997-notorious-big-killed-13084580","section":"Archives","mediaType":"default"} The Life and Legacy of Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace | News One The Life and Legacy of Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace Leave a comment 15 reads Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace (pictured) was gunned down on March 9, 1997, just two months shy of his 25th birthday. With fame and all the perks that came along with his stellar rapping ability, he was destined to achieve so much more. On Wednesday, Biggie Smalls, as he also known, would have been 42 years of age. NewsOne takes a look back at the life and legacy of the heavyweight Brooklyn rap legend.

SEE ALSO: Haitian Revolution Leader Toussaint L’Ouverture Was Born On This Day In 1743 Hip-hop music was in a curious place, as many were still mourning the death of Wallace’s rival, Tupac “2Pac” Shakur , who was killed a mere six months prior on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas via a drive-by shooting. Because of the tensions between East and West Coast rappers at the time, many fans thought 2Pac’s death was a fatal warning serving as a salvo for the escalating coastal war. Dying in a similar fashion, Biggie’s murder left a foreboding cloud over the industry as it suddenly became less about the music and more about the violence it inspired. Born Christopher George Latore Wallace to Jamaican parents George Latore and Voletta Wallace, the future Bad Boy star was raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. According to his mother’s accounts, Wallace was a good student but succumbed to the trappings of the streets while in middle school. By the time he reached high school, his involvement in the drug trade increased and he was later jailed for his actions.

Despite his life of crime, Wallace had a natural knack for rapping and made a demo tape using the alias Biggie Smalls. The tape made its way to the hands of Mister Cee, a popular DJ who worked with another Brooklyn legend, rapper Big Daddy Kane. Mister Cee played the tape for editors at hip-hop magazine The Source who were so wowed that they featured Biggie in its “Unsigned Hype” column in a March 1992 issue and reportedly invited him to record more music. The demo caught the ears of Uptown Records producer and A&R Sean “Diddy” Combs who rushed to sign the hefty MC. Wallace still sold drugs as he joined Combs’ newly minted label, Bad Boy Records, later in 1992. After an appearance on a remix of Mary J. Blige’s smash “Real Love” single as the Notorious B.I.G., Wallace became a household name. Watch Blige’s “Real Love” remix with B.I.G.

here: Combs developed his protégé along slowly, having Wallace appear on tracks with reggae star Super Cat, LL Cool J, and more, but it was with his debut album, “Ready To Die,” in September of 1994 that Wallace cemented himself as a force. Marrying R&B singer Faith Evans a month prior, Wallace’s career arc was exceptional, considering West Coast hip-hop ruled heavily on the air waves and among consumers. Spawning huge hits in the singles “Juicy,” “Big Poppa,” and “One More Chance,” the LP went on to go platinum four times. Between his debut and sophomore effort, Wallace helmed the creation of off-shoot music group Junior M.A.F.I.A., featuring childhood friends Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease. The crew had hits in the singles “Player’s Anthem” and “Get Money” — both staples of any old-school rap mix nationwide. Surprisingly enough, Shakur and Wallace were once allies and had even performed live shows with each other.

Things took a turn, however, when Shakur accused Uptown Records boss Andre Harrell, Combs, and Wallace of setting him up for a robbery and shooting in a New York studio in 1994. Wallace denied all claims, and just last year it was revealed the beleaguered businessman and music mogul James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond was responsible for ordering a hit on Shakur. The feud between the pair never went away and Shakur released his infamous and scathing diss record “Hit ‘Em Up” in the summer of 1996, squarely aimed in Wallace’s direction. Shakur also claimed to have slept with Wallace’s wife on the record, but it went largely ignored by the target. As aforementioned, Shakur was killed later that fall and the rumors began to swirl. Was Wallace responsible for Shakur’s slaying? Did the diss record cut that deep to warrant the shooting?

While in California to promote his second album, Wallace was shot after attending the Soul Train Music Awards the evening prior, and as he was leaving an industry after-party in a SUV, Wallace was hit with four bullets by an African-American man who hopped out of a vehicle while Wallace’s entourage was stuck at a red light. The murder remains unsolved, although it was initially rumored that Suge Knight, the owner of Death Row Records who counted 2Pac as a signee, ordered the shooting. The “Life After Death” album was released posthumously on March 25, 1997. It was a double-disc album, marking the progression of Wallace’s style, and highlighted his amazing ability to adapt to the times. It has gone on to become one of hip-hop’s best-selling albums and was certified Diamond (10 million sold) in 2000. Survived by his daughter Tynna, who is now 19 and in college at Penn State, she just released a clothing line. Tynna was featured in Wallace’s “Juicy” video when she was just a toddler and maintains her father’s legacy.

Wallace’s son with Evans, also named Christopher, is a budding actor and rapper as well. The tragic circumstances that led to the death of Wallace just as he was ready to become an even bigger star still boggle the mind. Yet, there is some comfort knowing that Wallace’s legacy remains untarnished despite one too many posthumous releases from Bad Boy’s vaults. Listeners worldwide have been robbed of witnessing what Wallace would have done next, and while he left us with plenty, it will never be enough. Rest In Powerful Peace, Biggie. You Are The Illest. E-monthly | Notorious | NETWORK. LEARN. BE DISCOVERED. InsideTheMusicBusiness.com Legal Corner | Music Videos | Release Reviews | Blogs | IMB Products/Services | Advertise/Contact Us | InsideTheMusicBusiness.com On the night of March 9th 1997, Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles. To date his murder remains a mystery. His life was not. NOTORIOUS, the film and soundtrack is his story.

Through determination and raw talent, Wallace transformed himself from a Brooklyn hustler to become one of the greatest rappers of all time; The Notorious B.I.G. As it was ingrained in his head ï¿½Moï¿½ Money begets ï¿½Moï¿½ Problems.ï¿½ At the height of his short career, Wallace found himself (along with his mentor and Executive Producer) Sean ï¿½Diddyï¿½ Combs, in the middle of an ï¿½east coast-west coastï¿½ hip hop feud. This feud ultimately triggered a series of events over a six month period that brought down two of the legends of the game: First (Death Row recording artist) Tupac Shakur was shot on the Las Vegas strip (September 13, 1996), and then The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles six months later (March 9, 1997).

The NOTORIOUS soundtrack (Executive Produced by Diddy) mixes some of the B.I.G.G.E.S.T tracks of Wallaceï¿½s career including ï¿½One More Chance,ï¿½ ï¿½Hypnotizeï¿½and ï¿½Warningï¿½ along with heart felt contributions from some of his friends in the game including Jay-Z with ï¿½Brooklyn (Go Hard)ï¿½, Jadakiss featuring (Biggieï¿½s wife) Faith Evanï¿½s with ï¿½Letter to B.I.G.,ï¿½ and a tribute from his son CJ doing a ï¿½legacy remix of ï¿½One More Chance,ï¿½ with Faith Evans. Christopher Wallaceï¿½s legacy now lives not only in song and in the hearts of millions of fans around the globe, but on film for future generations to experience the NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

- Eric Kline Featured Articles about Notorious B I G - Page 5 - latimes FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT NOTORIOUS B I G - PAGE 5 NEWS He's making it Biggie again March 15, 2007 | Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer THE Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down a decade ago this month in Los Angeles, but Biggie Smalls is living large again on the U.S. album charts as his "Greatest Hits" career survey takes over this week at No. 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The CD of music from the man born Christopher Wallace sold 99,000 copies to claim the top spot on the U.S.

album chart and features familiar hits as well as two previously unreleased tracks: "Want That Old Thing Back" and "Running Your Mouth." Advertisement ENTERTAINMENT A Memorable 'Life' on Its Own Merits : THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.: "Life After Death" Bad Boy / Arista **** March 26, 1997 | CHEO HODARI COKER, TIMES STAFF WRITER The cover of "Life After Death," the posthumous double album from the Notorious B.I.G., is enough to send chills up the spine of even the most cynical hip-hop critic. The 24-year-old rapper, who was fatally shot March 9 in Los Angeles, is shown leaning on an old-fashioned hearse, not unlike the one that carried his body in a funeral procession through his old Brooklyn neighborhood. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Taking a New Look at Killing of Rapper March 17, 2006 | Richard Winton and Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writers A new team of Los Angeles Police Department detectives is investigating the 1997 murder of rap artist Notorious B.I.G., a top city attorney told City Council members Thursday.

In answer to questions about how a lawsuit alleging department involvement in the killing led to a costly court defeat, Assistant City Atty. Don Vincent told the council's public safety committee that a new group of Robbery-Homicide Division detectives had been assigned to the case. NATIONAL Rapper's Family Offers Alibi in Shakur Slaying September 11, 2002 | CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER The family of Notorious B.I.G. released documents and an audiotape Tuesday that they contend place the late rapper in a New York recording studio on the night that rival Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, met with members of a Compton gang in Las Vegas on the night Shakur was shot, provided the murder weapon and promised to pay the gang $1 million for the assassination. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Suit Over Rapper's Death Altered October 29, 2004 | Chuck Philips, Times Staff Writer The mother of late rap star Notorious B.I.G.

has decided to dismiss from a wrongful-death lawsuit the man she accused of shooting her son, raising new questions about theories surrounding the entertainer's slaying seven years ago. In her suit, Voletta Wallace had named Southland resident Harry Billups, also known as Amir Muhammad, as the triggerman who ambushed her son on March 9, 1997, in the mid-Wilshire district. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Judge Rules for Family of Slain Rapper and Sets New Trial Date June 10, 2006 | Sam Quinones, Times Staff Writer In the latest twist in the saga surrounding the slaying of rap star Notorious B.I.G., a federal judge Friday sided with his family in their wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. U.S. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Rogue Officer Named in Trial June 28, 2005 | David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer Then-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez was moonlighting as a security guard for Death Row Records at a music industry party that rapper Notorious B.I.G. attended just before his 1997 slaying, according to a jailhouse informant.

The rapper's family is trying to show that the slaying was orchestrated by Perez's onetime partner, LAPD Officer David Mack, who subsequently was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to 14 years in prison. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Tipster Says Rogue L.A. Officers Killed Rapper June 25, 2005 | Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writer Jurors hearing the Notorious B.I.G. wrongful death suit were sent home early after lawyers told the court Friday that they had received a dramatic eleventh-hour tip linking two rogue Los Angeles police officers to the rapper's 1997 slaying. A Louisiana man who said he had connections with the LAPD told lawyers for B.I.G.' ENTERTAINMENT Faith in a comfort zone April 6, 2005 | Baz Dreisinger, Special to The Times A decade ago, a resolute R&B singer from New Jersey released her debut album on a fledgling music label run by a producer whom she heard would be big. That same year, she met -- and, nine days later, married -- a portly rapper from Brooklyn whom she heard would be big. She heard correctly. The producer was Sean "P.

Diddy" Combs; the rapper was Notorious B.I.G. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL No Proof Against Knight in Slaying, Attorney Says August 10, 1999 | CHUCK PHILIPS and MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITERS An attorney for rap music executive Marion "Suge" Knight said Los Angeles detectives have no evidence linking the imprisoned businessman to the slaying of rapper Notorious B.I.G. and accused investigators of falsely identifying his client as a key suspect in the 2-year-old murder case. "This was nothing but a fishing expedition in which LAPD detectives intentionally disseminated false and misleading statements to the media," said attorney Robin J. Yanes. March 1997 - The 30 Greatest Months in Rap History | Complex The 30 Greatest Months in Rap History - Scarface's The Untouchable is released on 3/11/1997 - The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death is released on 3/25/1997 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Hip-hop's tale of two cities—New York and Los Angeles—came to a tragic conclusion in the early morning hours of March 9, 1997, when Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down while sitting in an SUV shortly after leaving a Soul Train Awards after-party hosted by Vibe magazine at L.A.'s Petersen Automotive Museum. Biggie's murder at age 25 came just six months after his friend turned rival Tupac Shakur was killed in another car-to-car drive-by shooting. In the blink of an eye, hip-hop's two biggest, brightest lights were snuffed out. Biggie's funeral procession on March 19 caused unruly cathartic celebration in the streets of Brooklyn as throngs came out to pay their last respects to the assassinated King of New York. Less than a week later his double album Life After Death was unleashed on a still shell-shocked hip-hop nation. The record Biggie hoped would cement his reputation as the best rapper alive sounded totally different knowing the virtuoso rapper heard on tracks like "Kick In The Door" and "Going Back To Cali" and "Notorious Thugs" wasn't alive anymore.

Clouded by grief, it was painful to hear all those songs that referred to his "so-called beef with you-know-who"—"What's Beef" and "Long Kiss Goodnight" and "You're Nobody Till Somebody Kills You" for God's sake—not to mention the cover art featuring Biggie standing in front of a hearse. It was all too much. And at the same time, it was not nearly enough. Sixteen years later the album stands as one of the greatest in rap history. That same month, Texas O.G. Scarface released The Untouchable, which hit stores just two days after Biggie's murder, and reached No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The lead single was called "Smile" and it opened with a posthumous verse from Tupac Shakur. "It's gon' be some stuff you gon' see/That's gon' make it hard to smile in the future," 'Pac said at the top of the track.

"But through whatever you see/Through all the rain and the pain/You gotta keep your sense of humor/You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit/Remember that-Mmm, yeah/Keep ya head up." And somehow we did. -Rob Kenner WatchNow Notorious B.I.G facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Notorious B.I.G Sources Notorious B.I.G. fully embodied the gangsta life he portrayed on his rap albums. A former crack dealer and convict, B.I.G. rapped his way to a better life only to lose that life to the street violence he could not leave behind. At age 24 he became the victim of a drive-by shooting—the second death connected to a purported deadly feud between rap music’s East Coast and West Coast factions which had claimed the life of rapper Tupac Shakur only months before. B.I.G.’s death cut short a career that promised to propel him into the upper echelons of the music business. His posthumous second album—ironically and prophetically titled Life After Death… ‘Til Death Do Us Part —confirmed that the heavyweight rapper had the potential to be big on the music charts.

Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, was the only child of Voletta Wallace, a preschool teacher who raised him alone in the tough Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn . Although he was described as a shy, overweight youngster, Christopher Wallace soon took on the hardened mentality of the gang members around him and began dealing drugs under the street name Biggie Smalls. He never finished high school and, at age 17, was arrested on drug charges in North Carolina and spent nine months in jail. Even after finding success in the music industry, B.I.G. continued to run afoul of the law. In 1995, he was arrested in New York and charged with assault after he allegedly chased two people with a baseball bat and smashed the window of their cab. He was twice arrested in New Jersey —first for allegedly robbing and assaulting a man, then on drug and weapons charges. In the rap world, these incidents established his credibility as someone well-acquainted with the streets but B.I.G. understood the dangers of living out the life he rapped about. In 1994, after the release of his first album, he told the Chicago Tribune that he was “scared to death….

Scared of getting my brains blown out.” B.I.G. moved out of his Brooklyn neighborhood to a safer locale in New Jersey. B.I.G. shook the music world with his debut album, Ready to Die, an unflinching portrayal of the despair experienced daily in much of urban America. The album At a Glance… Born Christopher G. Wallace, in Brooklyn, New York; shot to death March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles , CA; son of Voletta Wallace; married Faith Evans (a singer); children: T’Yanna, Christopher, Jr, Known by the street name Biggie Smalls and the stage name Notorious B.I.G. Career: Rapper, Albums: Ready to Die, 1994; Ufe After Death… ‘Til Death Do Us Part, 1997. Guest appearance on Martin, Fox-TV. Awards: Billboard Award, Rap Artist of the Year, 1995. detailed drug sales, sex, violence, incarceration, and death, much of which was drawn from his own life. “I can’t say I’m proud of dealing drugs,” B.I.G. once said.

“But you do what you can to survive in the ’hood. Live in the real bad part of the ’hood for a while and you’ll see how desperate it can make you,” he continued. B.I.G. drew on that desperation and his law-breaking past in his songs, in which he matter-of-factly “described himself as a former drug dealer and stickup man who had turned to rapping,” Jon Parales wrote in the New York Times “He recalled the mundane details of bagging, transporting and selling drugs; he boasted about sexual conquests and mourned a murdered girlfriend.” After transporting listeners through a brutal urban landscape, the album closes with the death of its rapping narrator who takes his own life. The Los Angeles Times said the album was “jolting and uncompromising” and called B.I.G. “one of (rap) music’s most talented and promising voices.” He was named Rap Artist of the Year at the Billboard Awards in 1995 and cited as Rap Singer of the Year for the song One More Chance. Friendship Turned to Deadly Rivalry B.I.G.

was the protégé of Sean “Puffy” Combs, head of the New York City record company Bad Boy Entertainment. When B.I.G first appeared on the scene, he hung around with Tupac Shakur. The two rappers once shared a friendship, but it had evolved into a bitter rivalry. Shakur accused B.I.G. of copying his musical style and being involved in a 1994 incident in which Shakur was robbed and shot. B.I.G. made references to Shakur in his music and Shakur rapped back that he had had sex with B.I.G’s wife, rhythm and blues vocalist Faith Evans. The rivalry grew and expanded including Combs and Deathrow CEO Marion “Suge” Knight, rap groups Mobb Deep, The Dogg Pound, Junior M.A.F.I.A. and fans of the two rap artists. In September of 1996, Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas . The media immediately picked up on the rift between B.I.G. and Shakur as a possible motive for murder but the speculation regarding B.I.G.’s involvement in the slaying did not result in any arrests. A Targeted Hit B.I.G.

was sitting in the passenger side of his GMC Suburban following a music industry party in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on March 9, 1997, listening to a tape of his second album which was to be released in two weeks. A dark-colored car—which police believe had been waiting for the rapper—pulled up beside the Suburban. Several shots from a nine-millimeter handgun were fired into B.I.G.’s upper body before the car raced away. Notorious B.I.G. was pronounced dead when his body arrived at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “The way it went down,” said a police official, “it was a targeted hit.” Police and music industry insiders quickly speculated that B.I.G.’s murder may have been a retaliation killing for the death of Shakur. But in spite of the very public nature of the murder, committed in front of dozens of witnesses that included several off-duty police officers who were acting as security guards, there were no arrests in the case and the investigation seemed permanently stalled. Family and friends of B.I.G. accused the police of dragging their feet because the death of a young black man does not take high priority.

The death of Tupac Shakur has likewise been unsolved. “The deaths of Shakur and (B.I.G.) have forced official America to peer into the world of the leading rappers, who have made millions and surrounded themselves with armed heavies,” wrote a London Times contributor. In 1998, Vibe magazine reported that Orlando Anderson, who was a suspect in Shakur’s murder, was also questioned in B.I.G.’s murder. The car used in B.I.G.’s drive-by shooting had been found and belonged to Anderson’s cousin. Anderson had reportedly also been at the same industry party as B.I.G. Orlando Anderson was murdered in a shooting unrelated to both Shakur’s and B.I.G.’s murders. B.I.G. commented on the day before his death that he wanted “to see my kids get old,” a wish that was to go unfulfilled. B.I.G.’s funeral attracted rap’s elite and drew hordes of fans onto Brooklyn streets to honor the rap star buried in a white double-breasted suit in an extra-large mahogany casket. At the time of his death, B.I.G. was separated from his wife, singer Faith Evans.

He and Evans had a son, also named Christopher, and B.I.G had a 4-year-old daughter, T’yanna, from a previous relationship. Two weeks before his death, according to the Los Angeles Times, B.I.G. was fatalistically quoted as saying: “There’s nothing that protects you from the inevitable. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen, no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you clean your life up and live it differently. What goes around comes around, man.” Ready to Die, Bad Boy Entertainment, 1994. Life After Death… Til Death Do Us Part, Bad Boy Entertainment, 1997. Associated Press, March 10, 1997. Facts on File, March 13, 1997, p. 170. London Times, March 11, 1997. Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1997, p. A1; March 11, 1997, p. B1; March 19, 1997, p. B1.

Newsweek, March 24, 1997, p. 74. New York Times, March 10, 1997, p. A8. People, March 24, 1997, p. 69; March 31, 1997, p.108. Vibe, December/January 1997–1998; September 1998. —Dave Wilkins and Rebecca Parks Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Sources Even in death, Notorious B.I.G. was bigger than life. His death at age 24—the second drive-by slaying of a gangsta rapper in a six—month span-intensified a purported deadly feud between rap music’s East Coast and West Coast factions. B.I.G.’s funeral—he was buried in a white double-breasted suit and an extra-large mahogany casket—attracted rap’s elite and drew hordes of fans onto Brooklyn streets.

And his posthumous second album—ironically and prophetically titled Life After Death … Til Death Do Us Part— confirmed that the heavyweight rapper had the potential to be big, indeed, on the music charts. At the same time, he was a hard man to pin down. A former crack dealer and convict, BI.G. rapped his way to a better life only to lose that life to the street violence he could not leave behind. A big man, he was variously described as standing between 6-feet and 6-feet-3-inches tall and weighing between 230 and 380 pounds. Born Christopher Wallace, he used the street name Biggie Smalls and the stage name Notorious B.I.G. The product of a brutal environment, he commented on the Born Christopher G. Wallace, in Brooklyn, New York ; shot to death March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles , CA; son of Voletta Wallace; married Faith Evans (a singer); children: T’yanna, Christopher. Wallace was known by the street name Biggie Smalls and the stage name Notorious B.I.G.

Arrived on the music scene in 1994 with the debut album Ready to Die, which sold more than 1 million copies. B.I.G.’s second album, titled Life After Death… ’Til Death Do Us Part, was released shortly after his death. Awards: Billboard Award, Rap Artist of the Year, 1995. day before his death that he wanted “to see my kids get old.” That wish, however, went unfulfilled. One some level, B.I.G., seemed to know that the odds were against him escaping his violent past. In 1994, after the release of his first album, he told the Chicago Tribune that he was “scared to death.… Scared of getting my brains blown out.” Coincidence or Premonition? B.I.G. shook the music world with that debut album, Ready to Die, an unflinching portrayal of the despair experienced daily in much of urban America—and it’s brutal outcomes. The album detailed drug sales, sex, violence, incarceration, and death. The Los Angeles Times said the album was “jolting and uncompromising” and called B.I.G.

“one of (rap) music’s most talented and promising voices.” He was named Rap Artist of the Year at the Billboard Awards in 1995 and cited as Rap Singer of the Year for the song One More Chance. After transporting listeners through a brutal urban landscape, the album closes with the death of its rapping narrator—who takes his own life. Notorious B.I.G.’s music is perhaps equal parts fiction and autobiography. Before attaining fame, he was a small-time crack dealer in the tough Bedford-Stuyve-sant section of Brooklyn. He never finished high school and, at age 17, was arrested on drug charges in North Carolina and spent nine months in jail. In 1995, he was arrested in New York and charged with assault after he allegedly chased two people with a baseball bat and smashed the window of their cab. He was twice arrested in New Jersey—first for allegedly robbing and assaulting a man, then on drug and weapons charges. “I can’t say I’m proud of dealing drugs,” B.I.G. once said. “But you do what you can to survive in the ’hood.

Live in the real bad part of the ’hood for a while and you’ll see how desperate it can make you.” B.I.G. drew on that desperation and his law-breaking past in his songs, in which he matter-of-factly “described himself as a former drug dealer and stickup man who had turned to rapping,” Jon Parales wrote in the New York Times. “He recalled the mundane details of bagging, transporting and selling drugs; he boasted about sexual conquests and mourned a murdered girlfriend.” A Targeted Hit B.I.G. was sitting in the passenger side of his GMC Suburban following a music industry party shortly after midnight on March 9, 1997. He was listening to a tape of his second album, which was to be released in two weeks. A dark-colored car—which police believe had been waiting for the rapper—pulled up beside the Suburban. Several shots from a nine-millimeter handgun were fired into B.I.G.’s upper body; he was shot in the head at least once. Then the car raced away. Notorious B.I.G. was pronounced dead on arrival at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“The way it went down,” said a police official, “it was a targeted hit.” Police and music industry insiders quickly speculated that B.I.G.’s killing may have resulted from a volatile, vicious rift in the rap music world—conjecture that was not proven. Notorious B.I.G. was produced by, and the protégé of, Sean “Puffy” Combs, head of the New York City record company Bad Boy Entertainment. Combs was the rival of producer Marion “Suge” Knight, owner of Death Row Records, a leading West Coast gangsta rap label. In September 1996, six months before B.I.G.’s death, rapper Tupac Shakur—a Death Row recording artist with a promising future in films—was gunned down in a similar drive-by shooting in Las Vegas . The two rappers once shared a friendship, but it had evolved into a bitter rivalry. Shakur accused B.I.G. of copying his musical style and being involved in a 1994 incident in which Shakur was robbed and shot repeatedly. B.I.G. taunted Shakur on the song called Who Shot Ya, and Shakur rapped back that he had had sex with B.I.G’s wife.

“The deaths of Shakur and (B.I.G.) have forced official America to peer into the world of the leading rappers, who have made millions and surrounded themselves with armed heavies,” wrote a London Times contributor. B.I.G. was the son of Voletta Wallace, a Brooklyn preschool teacher who named him Christopher and raised him alone. Christopher Wallace, it’s been said, was a shy, overweight youngster who became a crack dealer—before morphing into Notorious B.I.G. and nearly leaving his harsh past behind by chronicling it on record. He did not make it, however. At the time of his death, B.I.G. was separated from his wife, singer Faith Evans. He and Evans had a son, also named Christopher, and B.I.G had a 4-year-old daughter, T’yanna, from a previous relationship. Two weeks before his death, according to the Los Angeles Times, B.I.G. was fatalistically quoted as saying: “There’s nothing that protects you from the inevitable. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen, no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you clean your life up and live it differently.

What goes around comes around, man.” Ready to Die, Bad Boy Entertainment, 1994. Life After Death… ’Til Death Do Us Part, Bad Boy Entertainment, 1997. Associated Press, March 10, 1997. Facts on File, March 13, 1997. London Times, March 11, 1997. Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1997; March 11, 1997; March 19, 1997. Newsweek, March 24, 1997. New York Times, March 10, 1997. People, March 24, 1997; March 31, 1997.

—Dave Wilkins Born: Christopher Wallace; Brooklyn , New York , 21 May 1972; died Los Angeles , California , 9 March 1997 Genre: Hip-Hop Best-selling album since 1990: Life after Death (1997) Hit songs since 1990: "Juicy," "Big Poppa," "Hypnotize" In the early 1990s the New York–based rapper the Notorious B.I.G. exploded onto a hip-hop scene then dominated by "G-Funk," the synthesizer-laden, funk-based style pioneered by the West Coast rapper and producer Dr. Dre. The Notorious B.I.G.'s gritty, unromanticized tales of urban crime injected a note of reality into GFunk's over-the-top and often facile celebration of the pleasures of "gangsta" life. B.I.G.'s charisma and skill as a storyteller created an instant critical and commercial sensation, re-establishing East Coast rap as a vital force in hip-hop and paving the way for New York–based rappers such as Nas and Jay-Z.

The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder in 1997 cut short a career just reaching its prime. Up from the Streets Born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, Christopher Wallace began rapping with local groups while still a teenager, taking the name Biggie Smalls in reference to his imposing height and girth. An able but indifferent student, he dropped out of high school at age seventeen, and his subsequent career as a crack dealer resulted in a nine-month stint in a North Carolina jail. A demo tape he made shortly after his release got him a brief write-up in the respected hip-hop magazine The Source. The article attracted the attention of Uptown Records producer Sean "Puffy" Combs, who immediately signed Biggie. When Combs left Uptown a short time later to form his own label, Bad Boy, he took Biggie with him. In 1993 the Notorious B.I.G., as he was now known, made his debut as a guest rapper on remixes of the Mary J.

Blige singles "Real Love" and "What's the 411?" He soon followed these with his first solo track, "Party and Bull****," which was heard on the soundtrack of the movie Who's the Man and generated much anticipation for his debut album. Released in September 1994, Ready to Die stands as one of the landmark albums of 1990s hip-hop. Although New York was universally acknowledged as the cradle of hip-hop culture and music, by the early 1990s the hard-edged beats and socially conscious rhymes of East Coast rap had largely been supplanted in popularity by the lazy melodic grooves and gleefully amoral "gangsta" posturing of West Coast G-Funk. On Ready to Die the Notorious B.I.G. takes G-Funk-style crime narratives and infuses them with wit and emotional depth, delivering tightly constructed yet seemingly effortless rhymes over Combs's slick, pop-oriented production. On the album's first single, "Juicy," the Notorious B.I.G.

spins an autobiographical rags-to-riches tale over a sample of Mtume's huge R&B hit from 1983, "Juicy Fruit," conveying the contrast between his old and new lives with skillful economy: "We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us / No heat, wonder why Christmas missed us / Birthdays was the worst days / Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay." A sample of another R&B hit from 1983, the Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets," anchors the album's second single, "Big Poppa," an upbeat boast of sexual prowess that became the Notorious B.I.G.'s signature song. Ready to Die counterbalances its carefree celebrations of sex, crime, and material wealth with more sober-minded tracks. "Warning" depicts the paranoia that accompanies sudden wealth and fame, while "Things Done Changed" casts a melancholy, nostalgic eye on a deteriorating city neighborhood: "Back in the days, our parents used to take care of us / Look at em now, they even f****** scared of us." The overall result is an album of considerable richness and complexity, unified by the Notorious B.I.G.'s consistently authoritative storytelling.

Appropriately, Ready to Die had an immediate impact on hip-hop and popular music, selling 4 million copies and turning the Notorious B.I.G. into a star. In late 1994 the Notorious B.I.G. married a Bad Boy label mate, the R&B singer Faith Evans. He spent the following year bolstering the success of Ready to Die with guest spots on tracks by artists such as Total, R. Kelly, and Michael Jackson. He also used his newfound clout to launch Junior M.A.F.I.A., a rap group consisting of some of his childhood friends. In 1996 the Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Kim launched a successful solo career under the tutelage of the Notorious B.I.G., with whom she began an affair. Rivalry and Murder With the Notorious B.I.G.'s success Bad Boy challenged Los Angeles–based Death Row Records as hip-hop's dominant label, sowing the seeds for an intense East Coast/West Coast rivalry. In November 1994 the Death Row artist—and former friend of the Notorious B.I.G.—Tupac Shakur was shot several times in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio.

Shakur accused the Notorious B.I.G. and Combs of masterminding the attack. Although the two denied this, Shakur held a grudge and in 1996 recorded "Hit 'Em Up," a scathing, personal attack on the Notorious B.I.G., Bad Boy, and the entire East Coast scene. In September 1996 Shakur was murdered in an unsolved drive-by shooting in Las Vegas . Speculation linked the Notorious B.I.G. to Shakur's death. Six months later, on March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles. The two deaths rocked the hip-hop community, leading to an extensive, long-term soul-searching regarding the violence permeating rap music and the rap industry. In death, the Notorious B.I.G., like Shakur, came to be regarded as a kind of hip-hop martyr. This image enhanced the immense respect he already enjoyed as an artist and increased the already-high anticipation of his second album, Life after Death, which was released three weeks after the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder.

A sprawling double album of twenty-four tracks, Life after Death enlisted a wide array of producers and guest artists in a successful attempt to expand upon the pop-friendly yet gritty hip-hop style of Ready to Die. It was also a stunning commercial success. It debuted at number one on the charts, selling 700,000 copies in its first weeks and ultimately going eleven-times platinum. Its first two singles, "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems," made the Notorious B.I.G. the first artist to have two posthumous number one hits. Moreover, Combs's and Evans's tribute to the Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You," became one of the most successful singles of 1997. Born Again (1999), a collection of previously unreleased tracks, was also a commercial success, debuting at number one and selling 2 million copies. The Notorious B.I.G. brought a fresh and distinct voice to hip-hop in the 1990s, expanding the genre both as an art form and as a commercial powerhouse.

While his success restored the relevance the East Coast hip-hop scene had lost during the rise of West Coast rap, it also helped engender a bitter and murderous rivalry between the two coasts that divided hip-hop. SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY: Ready to Die (Bad Boy, 1994); Life after Death (Bad Boy, 1997); Born Again (Bad Boy, 1999). BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Scott, The Murder of Biggie Smalls (New York, 2000); R. Sullivan, Labyrinth (New York, 2002). WEBSITES: Articles about Notorious B I G - latimes Notorious B.I.G.'s kids to star in animated series 'House of Wallace' March 12, 2013 | By Gerrick D. Kennedy Sixteen years after Notorious B.I.G.'s life and career were cut short in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, his children will pay homage to their iconic father with a new animated series. "House of Wallace" is anchored around the slain rapper's two children, 16-year-old C.J.

Wallace -- who he had with his wife, R&B singer Faith Evans -- and 19-year-old T'yanna Wallace, as they fight to maintain his New York City recording studio and preserve his legacy, Ossian Media has announced. Advertisement Sketch Shows Suspect in Rap Star's Slaying March 28, 1997 | MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITER Police on Thursday released a composite sketch of the gunman suspected of killing rap star Notorious B.I.G. in a drive-by shooting and disclosed that they believe he may have conspired with others before carrying out the attack. Los Angeles Police Lt. Ross Moen characterized the March 9 slaying as "a targeted hit" by a gunman described as an African American man in his early 20s, wearing a bow tie and driving a dark, late-model sedan at the time of the shooting. ENTERTAINMENT Autopsy report reveals no new details in Notorious B.I.G. slaying December 8, 2012 | By Gerrick D. Kennedy More than 15 years after Notorious B.I.G.

was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, one of music's most famous homicides remains unsolved, but police officials have released the slain rapper's autopsy report hoping to generate new leads. The Los Angeles Police Department unsealed the report, which had been on a security hold, on Friday, revealing the graphic details of how the Brooklyn-bred rapper, born Christopher Wallace, died in March 1997. But as The Times' L.A. Now blog reported in its coverage of the autopsy report's release, the LAPD has released no new information about the investigation, and it's still unclear whether the release was prompted by new leads on the unsolved slaying. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Personal Dispute Is Focus of Rap Probe March 18, 1997 | CHUCK PHILIPS and MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITERS The investigation of Notorious B.I.G.'s slaying is focusing on the likelihood that the rapper was gunned down over a personal dispute with a Compton gang member, law enforcement sources say.

Investigators have found no evidence that the March 9 slaying after a Los Angeles record industry party was linked to either a bicoastal feud in the rap community or Los Angeles street gang rivalries. NEWS Gangsta Rap Performer Notorious B.I.G. Slain March 10, 1997 | ERIC LICHTBLAU and CHUCK PHILIPS and CHEO HODARI COKER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS Rap music star Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death along Museum Row in Los Angeles' Mid-Wilshire district early Sunday as he left a music industry party, a brazen attack that marked the second drive-by murder of a gangsta rap celebrity in the last six months. B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, was leaving the party at the Petersen Automotive Museum about 12:30 a.m.

CALIFORNIA | LOCAL FBI Probes Rap Star's '97 Killing March 20, 2004 | Chuck Philips, Times Staff Writer Seven years after the killing of rap star Notorious B.I.G., the FBI is investigating allegations that a rogue Los Angeles police officer orchestrated the slaying with rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, according to court documents and law enforcement sources. The FBI is pursuing a 6-year-old theory that then-Officer David A. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Police Seize Car in Probe of Rapper's Slaying June 13, 1997 | CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER Police have impounded a Chevy Impala from a house in Compton that matches the description of the car used in the slaying of rapper Notorious B.I.G. earlier this spring. Los Angeles police detectives refused to discuss the case, but sources said the two-door sedan is believed to belong to a Compton resident named Dwayne Keith "Keefee D" Davis and was confiscated from the backyard of his girlfriend's house during a May 29 gang raid unrelated to the murder probe.

ENTERTAINMENT Ever True to His Name, Notorious B.I.G. Is Big April 10, 1997 The Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous "Life After Death" became the first album in more than two months to hold onto the nation's No. 1 sales spot for two weeks. The two-disc rap collection, which sold a staggering 690,000 copies in its first week in the stores, continued to dominate the retail picture last week by selling another 307,000 copies, according to SoundScan. That figure doubled the 147,000 copies sold by the week's runner-up: the Spice Girls' "Spice." Translated into dollars, the B.I.G. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Officers May Have Guarded Notorious B.I.G. March 27, 1997 | CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER The Inglewood police chief said Wednesday that his department is investigating whether one of its officers was working as a bodyguard for Notorious B.I.G. on the evening he was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Inglewood Police Chief Alex Perez said the 24-year-old rapper's record company may have hired at least one off-duty officer on March 9 to work security--in violation of department policy. "A personnel investigation into the matter is underway," Perez said. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL LAPD unseals autopsy report of rapper Notorious B.I.G. December 7, 2012 | By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Police Department took the unusual step Friday of unsealing the 15-year-old autopsy report of rapper Notorious B.I.G., saying they hope to generate new leads in the murder mystery. The autopsy report had been kept private at the request of investigators. But on Friday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office released the 23-page document, which provided details about the shooting. "Investigators decided to release the autopsy to stimulate new interest in the case and hopefully produce new leads," said Lt. Andrew Neiman. NEWS FBI releases files on Notorious B.I.G.

slaying April 6, 2011 | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer The FBI has released hundreds of pages of records from their investigation into the 1997 slaying of rapper Notorious B.I.G. The records, which contain FBI files spanning eight years, come from a civil rights probe the bureau launched into the killing. The records were posted on the FBI's website and are heavily redacted. The New York rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, as he was leaving a music industry party. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Judge dismisses suit by Notorious B.I.G.’s family against Los Angeles April 20, 2010 | By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times A federal judge has dismissed a wrongful-death suit filed eight years ago by the family of rapper Notorious B.I.G. against the city of Los Angeles charging that officials covered up police involvement in the rapper's slaying.

The rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, was gunned down outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997, as he was leaving a music industry party. The criminal investigation surrounding Wallace's slaying remains open. The lawsuit was dismissed April 5 by U.S. District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen after lawyers on both sides of the case said they had reached an agreement allowing for the lawsuit to be filed at a later date. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Florence-Marie Cooper dies at 69; U.S. District judge January 16, 2010 | By Carol J. Williams U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, a former legal secretary who rose to the federal judiciary and held accountable some of the nation's most powerful officials and institutions, died early Friday after suffering a stroke. She was 69. Cooper's most notable rulings included the dismissal of espionage charges against Chinese-born spy suspect Katrina Leung and the sanctioning of Los Angeles city authorities in the wrongful death case of rapper Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G.

CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Rapper's family prepares for talks December 27, 2007 | Joel Rubin Lawyers for relatives of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. are preparing for mediation talks in their wrongful death lawsuit against the city and several police officers. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Mid-Wilshire district in 1997. No arrests were made in the case, and family members filed suit in 2002 alleging that former Los Angeles Police Department officers and others in the rap industry had plotted to kill him. CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Notorious B.I.G.'s family files lawsuit alleging conspiracy April 18, 2007 | J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writer The family of slain rap star Notorious B.I.G. has filed a lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles police officers closely connected to the Rampart corruption scandal were involved in his 1997 killing. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, alleges that former Officers Raphael Perez and Nino Durden were involved in the shooting, which took place as Notorious B.I.G.

CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Crowds Mourn Rapper in N.Y. March 19, 1997 | JOHN J. GOLDMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER Resplendent in a double-breasted white suit and white hat, the body of rap music star Notorious B.I.G. was driven through the streets of his old Brooklyn neighborhood Tuesday as police struggled to hold back frenzied fans trying to follow his long funeral cortege. People danced atop parked cars as the hearse carrying his casket, followed by stretch limousines, passed a makeshift memorial of candles, flowers and teddy bears in front of B.I.G.' CALIFORNIA | LOCAL Officers May Have Seen Rap Killing April 23, 1997 | CHUCK PHILIPS, TIMES STAFF WRITER Several law enforcement officers may have witnessed the March 9 slaying of rap star Notorious B.I.G., according to law enforcement sources close to the investigation and associates of the rapper. The revelation comes at a time when the investigation is reportedly stymied by a lack of reliable witnesses.

One off-duty Inglewood police officer, working security for the rap star's entourage, was in a car directly behind Notorious B.I.G. Lil' Kim, Puff Daddy Guest On New "Notorious" B.I.G. Single - MTV mtv archive-David-Basham 11/04/1999 With the new album from the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., "Born Again," slated for release next month, Bad Boy Records has announced plans to issue "Notorious," a track featuring backing vocals from both Puff Daddy and Lil' Kim, as the next single from the LP. Another song, "Dead Wrong," was sent to radio last month to preview the sound of "Born Again," the second posthumous album from B.I.G., whose last record, "Life After Death," was released less than a month after the rapper was killed in March 1997 (see [article id="1425838"]"Notorious B.I.G. Gunned Down In Los Angeles"[/article]).

"Born Again" was executive produced by the late rapper's good friend Sean "Puffy" Combs and features a virtual who's who of hip-hop and rap stars in various supporting roles, including Method Man, Redman, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube, Missy Elliott, Lil' Cease, Too Short, Mobb Deep, Black Rob, and Beanie Siegel, among others. Aside from those artists, "Born Again" also features a running monologue from the Notorious B.I.G.'s mother, Voletta Wallace, as well as a haunting appearance from another fallen rapper, Tupac Shakur. "Notorious" will be released on November 15, while the "Born Again" album arrives in stores on December 7. -- David Basham

Question: In which month in 1997 was The Notorious B.I.G. gunned down?
Answer: March